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Crow: ASU is affordable for all, despite what tuition lawsuit says

Is ASU affordable?

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has sued the state’s Board of Regents for not providing college “as nearly free as possible,” as prescribed in the state Constitution. But how affordable is it? Brnovich’s lawsuit and statistics from Arizona State University President Michael Crow paint two pictures.
The Republic

Is ASU affordable?

BRNOVICH CLAIMS: In-state tuition and mandatory fees at ASU is now $10,792 per year – a 315 percent increase over 15 years.
Photo by Tom Tingle/The Republic

Is ASU affordable?

CROW CLAIMS: Net tuition (after grants but not including loans) for more than 45,000 in-state students at ASU averages about $1,800. For families with incomes under $50,000, it averages less than $200.
Photo by David Kadlubowski/The Republic

Is ASU affordable?

BRNOVICH CLAIMS: In 2002-03, the base tuition and mandatory fees for in-state students was approximately $2,600 per year.
File photo by The Republic

Is ASU affordable?

CROW CLAIMS: Roughly 80 percent of ASU students did not graduate then, and many had high debt loads. ASU’s graduation rate is now approaching 60 percent, and half graduate with no debt.
Photo by Rob Schumacher/The Republic

Is ASU affordable?

BRNOVICH CLAIMS: Approving higher tuition for online courses and per credit hour for part-time students penalizes those who struggle most to obtain an education.
Photo by Mark Henle/The Republic

Is ASU affordable?

CROW CLAIMS: More than 50 percent of ASU students are below median income, up from 3 percent in 1990, and 20 percent come from families below the poverty line, up from less than 0.5 percent in 2003.
Photo by David Kadlubowski/The Republic

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Is ASU affordable?

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich has sued the state’s Board of Regents for not providing college “as nearly free as possible,” as prescribed in the state Constitution. But how affordable is it? Brnovich’s lawsuit and statistics from Arizona State University President Michael Crow paint two pictures.

ASU president: Attorney General Mark Brnovich says many Arizona students have been priced out of our school. That's not remotely the case.

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich recently suggested that Arizona State University should return to the good old days of the 1980s when tuition was “low.”

He is so certain that the 1980s were a better time for ASU that he has filed a lawsuit against his own clients – Arizona’s public universities – in order to bring about such an outcome at ASU, University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University.

As is common with nostalgic thinking, however, it fails to reflect or remember the reality.

What ASU was really like back then

In the 1980s, ASU was not yet a successful public university because it was not yet capable of ensuring the likelihood of success for its students. The good old days remembered by Mr. Brnovich were the good old days for only a small proportion of the university’s students and relatively few Arizonans more generally.

In 1985, the freshman class was 85 percent white with only 225 Hispanic students. Fewer than 2 percent of students were from families in the lower half of family incomes.

Thirty-five percent of the 1985 freshman class dropped out during the first two semesters. The four-year graduation rate was 13.8 percent — that is, only one of every seven actually earned a degree in four years. The research funding level was about $29 million, placing ASU in the non-research university category.

At that time, the cost of tuition made little difference because the resources were insufficient for students to succeed at the university. The institution had very limited resources, which significantly limited its capacity to provide a quality education and ensure student success.

No wonder we had a bad reputation

In short, the university model of the 1980s that Mr. Brnovich showers with praise — while ridiculing the university model we now operate in 2017 — was an underperforming university doing a poor job graduating a primarily middle-class white student body.

The ASU of the 1980s was also run like a government agency. Heavy government funding (more than 60 percent of the ASU budget vs. around 10 percent now), low tuition/low financial aid, low productivity, limited innovation and slow change — all are indicators of an outmoded model of a public university.

This model did not work well in 1985, and it would work even less well in 2017 amid quite different economic and social challenges.

What ASU is like now (it's much better)

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From our game-day traditions to our less-sporty accolades, there are many reason to love Arizona State University.
Sun Devil fans are strong during the week before ASU's and UA's yearly battle for the Territorial Cup, and there's no shortage of reasons for them to be proud. Here are just a few of the reasons to love being a Sun Devil. The Republic

We hate UA: Certified by the NCAA as the oldest rivalry trophy in college football, the hatred between ASU and UA was sparked by the emergence of ASU as the state's second university, challenging UA's then-status as the only university in the state.
Today, the rivalry has challenged friendships and divided houses. Students on all four ASU campuses can be seen wearing their "No Pity for the Kitty" shirts every year leading up to the game. Rob Schumacher/The Republic

We know how to throw up a pitchfork: ASU's signature hand signal is meant to simulate mascot Sparky's fearsome pitchfork, but it also requires proper form from fans: Connect the ring finger and thumb while always keeping your index and middle finger separated.
We know how to throw up a pitchfork: Traditionally, after a first down at football games, the crowd will make their pitchforks and point in unison to the end zone. Mike Rynearson/The Republic

We're the 'most innovative': Arizona State University was named in 2015 as the most innovative school among national universities by U.S. News & World Report in a popular survey that ranks universities in a number of categories. ASU President Michael Crow has pushed innovation and entrepreneurship as core tenets of his vision for the university. One of its most popular innovations is a partnership with Starbucks that covers four years of an online bachelor's degree for Starbucks employees. Michael Schennum/The Republic

We go to great lengths to protect our 'A': ASU's signature Tempe Butte has featured a giant letter "A" on its face since 1938, earning it the nickname "A Mountain."In the past, freshmen would hike the Butte as part of orientation, but today, each freshman class can volunteer to climb up the mountain to whitewash the A during welcome week. During the week of the Territorial Cup, a coordinated squad of UA students will typically drive to Tempe and attempt to paint the giant gold "A" red. A defensive team of ASU students will camp out to keep watch and protect the "A" from any roaming Wildcats. Deirdre Hamill, The Arizona Republic

Pat Tillman made us proud: Tillman, a star with ASU and the Cardinals, left football in 2002 to enlist in the U.S. Army following the Sept. 11 attacks. Tillman was killed by friendly fire while fighting in Afghanistan in April 2004 and has since become an icon at ASU.
Earlier this year, Adidas and ASU unveiled "PT-42" alternate football uniforms in his honor, and more than 29,000 people participated in the 11th annual Pat's Run, the largest one yet. AP

Tillman Tunnel is awesome: ASU's recent stadium renovations have redefined one ofASU's favorite game-day traditions: the Tillman Tunnel. While fans typically jockey to get a glimpse of ASU football players lining up to enter the field from the stands, the new setup allows fans to hang directly over and inside of the tunnel. The pre-game ritual includesfog machines, anintro video and Pat Tillman's iconic image. With the new features, students get to experience the final moments and conversations before the team charges out onto the field. Rob Schumacher/The Republic

Sparky's Journey gets us amped: Sparky's walk from the Grand Canyon to Sun Devil Stadium is one of the most electrifying intros in college football.While it has been tweaked over the years, the journey has mostly remained the same. As the giant mascot makes his way into the stadium, he smashes the other team's bus with his foot, signaling the crowd's eruption before he steps into the stadium. Once Sparky plants his pitchfork into the center of the field, cue the fireworks, screaming fans, ASU's fight song and the start of the game. Arizona State University

Mill Avenue is the best on game day: The bars and the drinks are constantly evolving, but one thing has remained the same:Gold-clad students flood Mill Avenue before and after any ASU sporting event.ASU hostsDevils on Mill, a free event with food, free ASU gear, music, carnival games and activities between Forest and Mill on Sixth Street. After the game,Sun Devils know that any postgame snacks and libation needs will be met just steps away from the stadium on the reliable Mill Avenue mile. Patrick Breen/The Republic

We turned our reputation around: Despite our plethora of bars, ASU has done a 180 in terms of reputation. For the fourth year in a row, ASU did not make the Princeton Review's list of the top 20 "party schools" in the country. We also were left off Playboy's annual list of Top 10 Party Schools.
We’ve come a long way: ASU was Playboy's No. 1 party school in the nation in 2002, according to the State Press. Deirdre Hamill/The Republic

Bigger is better: ASU’s has its biggest-ever freshmen class this year, with more than 11,000 students. They’re among the more than 70,000 full-immersion students across ASU’s five campuses, in addition to the more than 19,000 students enrolled in ASU online. That size means ASU has a diverse range of experiences: It offers more than 300 undergraduate academic programs and majors. Michael Chow/The Republic

We're all golden rays of sunshine: While the university's official colors include maroon, there's only one color expected on fans in the stands at ASU's football games: gold. The university's Alumni Association says the color was initially chosen for the state's golden sunshine and promise of opportunity. But today's ASU faculty and students are encouraged to wear gold on Fridays to express their boundless school spirit. Rob Schumacher/The Republic

One ASU professor's potential HIV vaccine may begin clinical trials on humans as early as next year. Another, Laura Tohe, was named the Navajo Nation’s second-ever poet laureate this year. Among our faculty members and experts are “two Nobel laureates, 13 National Academy of Sciences members, 10 American Academy of Arts and Sciences members, 127 Fulbright American Scholar award winners, 25 Guggenheim Fellows and three members of the Royal Society, according to ASU. Mark Henle/The Republic

We have beautiful traditions: One of ASU's oldest traditions, Lantern Walk,takes place the Friday night before homecoming, as hundreds of students and alumni climb to the top of "A" Mountain with lanterns to light their way. Fans gather to listen to faculty and speakers, culminating in fireworks over Tempe. James Carreno/The Republic

We're sassy in the stands: Periodically throughout football games, fans will stand up and begin wildly shaking their car keys, a tradition that has endured since the 1980s. Legend says that the pitch of the jingling keys has been proven to strike fear into the hearts of visiting teams, but to most fans, the jingling merely represents the start of the next drive. Rob Schumacher/The Republic

Our mascot is buff from those pushups: After each Sun Devil touchdown, the fight song erupts from the Sun Devil Marching Band, and Sparky is hoisted onto a board in front of the crowd.
For every point on the scoreboard, the mascot will do one push-up.
In recent years, fans and even small children could be seen throughout the stadium trying to match the mascot push-up for push-up. Rob Schumacher/The Republic

About $2,000 average net tuition paid per year by Arizona resident students in 2017 in real dollars. That's less than the net tuition paid by Arizona resident students in 1985.

About $530 million in research funding (ranked in the top 10 of all U.S. universities without a medical school in the U.S. and ranked among the 100 leading research universities in the world). This translates into more than 10,000 research projects that provide extraordinary opportunity and experience for our students.

Here's how we made those changes

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Tuition is too high. But does the Arizona attorney general actually think he's going to win this lawsuit? Columnist Joanna Allhands is skeptical.

The reason for these changes in performance and impact is the rejection of the “good old days” model where our performance communicated clearly to many that ASU was not a serious university. Here’s how we’ve changed our university to achieve significant outcomes:

We have developed a new institutional design focused on student success.

We implemented strategic goals and established metrics for student success and excellence.

We have created a new financial model for student access, enabling greater opportunity for students from all income levels.

Taken together, our new approach has positioned ASU now to be one of the highest performing public universities in the U.S.

The truth about what we charge

This new model and successful outcome does not mean that we want tuition to be high for in-state students. Just the opposite.

The market price for ASU tuition is actually determined in the marketplace by our out-of-state and international students. That price is about $30,000 per year. Thousands pay it. We successfully compete in that market.

For Arizona residents, we do not charge that market price. We charge around $10,000, one-third of the market price. But, in addition, we offer financial aid for this $10,000 tuition/price.

That financial aid goes to about 75 percent of our students from Arizona for merit (academic prowess in high school) and financial need. The net result is an average net tuition for Arizona residents of about $2,000. This is one-fifteenth of the market price for a year at ASU.

And then there’s this: the attorney general continues to paint a picture of a large number of Arizona students priced out of higher education. In fact, no student who is academically qualified to attend ASU will be turned away. Regardless of his or her ability to pay, we will work with anyone who wants to attend ASU to ensure their success.

I can say with confidence that ASU today is delivering great value to students from Arizona at a cost of tuition as close to free as possible.